


Violet

by desertno3



Category: Gangs of London (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29288163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desertno3/pseuds/desertno3
Summary: When Sean finally meets his daughter, you wonder why you ever left him in the first place.
Relationships: Sean Wallace/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s the series where I take soft!Sean and dad!Sean to the absolute max. I really thought my last sean fic was self indulgent af but, man, this one might take the cake.

“Where’s your hat, Vi?”

Your daughter pauses what she’s doing in the garden and looks at you sheepishly before darting back inside. You chuckle when she returns with the aforementioned hat now on her head.

“Good girl.”

You watch her play for a few moments before sighing to yourself. The older she got, the more she resembled Sean - and the more your guilt about keeping her from her own father grew.

It was for her safety, that’s what you kept telling yourself. Safety was the reason you broke things off with Sean in the first place. You couldn’t do it, couldn’t be a part of the lifestyle he was living. The danger, the risk, it had been too much for you. And that was _before_ you found out you were pregnant.

It had always been something that gnawed at your conscience. You knew it was unfair of you to keep Violet in the dark about Sean and Sean in the dark about Violet but could never bring yourself to reach out to him. You knew everything would change once you did - and you didn't think you were ready for that just yet.

Unbeknownst to you, your entire life’s about to change before you’re ready anyway and when you do end up calling Sean, it’s because you don’t have a choice.


	2. Chapter One

It’s around ten at night when it happens.

Violet was already fast asleep in her room - knocked out after playing outside all afternoon - and you’d just finished up washing the dishes. You were halfway to your own room when you heard the unmistakable sound of the front door creaking open. Heart in your throat, you swore you’d locked the door. In fact, there was never a time where you left it unlocked. Ever. On instinct, you make for the gun you had safely locked away in the back of your bedroom closet, your hands trembling as you loaded it.

As you tiptoe back towards the front of the house, you find a man standing in your kitchen, peering at the photos and drawings that decorated the front of your refrigerator.

“Get out of my house.”

He straightens up at the sound of your voice and looks only mildly surprised at the gun being pointed at him. He looks at you curiously.

“Are you Sean Wallace’s girl?”

Your blood runs cold and you can feel even more dread build in the pit of your stomach.

“No.”

The man smiles and it makes your skin crawl. “Ex-girl, I mean.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think you do,” He says, stepping closer to you, a cocky look on his face. “Otherwise a girl like you wouldn’t have a gun like that.”

You can feel your heart hammering against your chest. You don’t know what he’s talking about, you didn’t even know someone would be able to gather that kind of information from looking at a fucking gun. But he was right. Sean had given it to you when you dated - for safety, he had said - and it was one of the moments in your relationship that made you pause and think maybe you weren’t suited to his life. But you’d kept the gun.

Thank fuck you kept the gun.

~

Sean’s in the middle of a family dinner when your call comes.

“It can wait,” He tells the housekeeper impatiently when she comes up to inform him.

“She says it’s an emergency, sir.”

His brow furrows, “Who’s calling?”

“She said her name was y/n.”

That’s all it takes for Sean to get up out of his chair and bolt to his office, leaving the rest of the family to look at each other in confusion. They all recognised your name, of course. They’d known you for years. They just didn’t think you and Sean still had anything to do with each other after all this time.

~

You keep your gun trained on the man bleeding out on the floor in front of you, terrified he was going to do something despite the fact that you’d just shot him. Your eyes dart between him and the hallway leading to the front door, knowing that it had been left wide open. Sean had said he was on his way but you weren’t going to assume that your intruder was working alone. You feared that more of them might come through the door before Sean could show up.

“Mummy?” You freeze when you hear your daughter’s voice float down from her room. “What was that?”

You stare at the man, hoping he wouldn’t make a sound.

“I just dropped something, baby. Don’t come out here, there’s a lot of glass.” You call out to her, hoping she’d buy the lie. You try to sound as calm as you can but even then your voice wavers. “Go back to sleep.”

There’s a moment of deliberation before you hear, “Okay.”

You let out a relieved sigh when you hear her footsteps retreat back into her room and hear her door shut. And then your eyes dart in the direction of the front door, hearing footsteps and the sound of voices coming from it. You lift the gun towards it, your hand shaky as you click the safety off.

It’s Sean who appears, his hands raising instinctively when he sees the gun pointed at him.

“Sean,” You sob in relief, clicking the safety back on and dropping it to the floor.

“Y/n,” He says, coming over to you and giving you a look over to see if you were alright. “Are you hurt?”

You shake your head and that’s when you crumble, your knees buckling as sobs wrack your body, the adrenaline dissipating and leaving you an absolutely terrified mess.

“You’re okay,” You hear Sean murmur comfortingly, not thinking twice about taking you into his arms. “It’s okay.”

~

Everything after that is a blur. You remember carrying a sleepy Violet into the car, making sure she didn’t see the scene in the kitchen, and being driven to the Wallace family home by someone called Elliot while Sean stayed behind and promised you he’d deal with the intruder. You remember meeting Marian and Jacqueline at the house and remember them fussing over you, making sure you were okay. And now you were sitting on the edge of the bed in the guest room, watching your daughter sleep soundly.

You knew you wouldn’t be able to sleep even if you tried so you decided to head downstairs. You pad towards the kitchen but pause at the doorway when you find Sean hunched over the kitchen counter with his head in his hands. He looks up when he hears you shuffle in.

“Sorry,” You murmur. “I was just getting a glass of water.”

“I’ll get it for you,” He tells you, getting up. “Have a seat.”

You watch him move around the kitchen and you’re surprised at how much you realise you’ve missed him. When you broke up with him, it was never because you didn’t love him. It was just that, in the end, your sense of self-preservation won out. You just didn’t want to spend your whole life looking over your shoulder, worried that you would get caught in the crossfire.

_And look how well that turned out_ , you think bitterly to yourself.

“Thanks,” You say when he sets the glass down in front of you.

“How are you feeling?”

You shake your head, not knowing how you would even begin to answer that.

“I don’t know,” You tell him honestly, looking up from your hands. “I just… I’m glad Violet didn’t see any of it.”

Sean nods, his gaze intently on you. He looks like he wants to say something and you brace yourself for the inevitable question but it never comes.

“We’re going to figure out who’s responsible,” He says instead. “But in the meantime you’re both safe here. I promise.”

You give him a grateful look.

“Thank you, Sean. Truly.”


	3. Chapter Two

“Can you help me colour this in, mum?”

You have to repress a tired sigh at your daughter’s request.

“Sorry, Vi, I can’t right now,” You tell her, scrolling through real estate listings on your phone. You’d been looking ever since the incident because there was no way in hell you were going to go back to your old place after what happened. “Maybe later, yeah?”

You hear her huff and when you look up, she’s already walking out of the room, crayons and colouring book in hand - no doubt on the hunt for someone else to ask.

You shouldn’t have been surprised at the way Violet had made herself right at home in the Wallace household, quickly warming up to everyone even though she’d just met them. It was just the kind of child she was. If she could, she would go right up to total strangers and talk to them but you’d made sure to nip that habit in the bud early, sitting her down and telling her why it was dangerous to do so. She was the most gregarious and self-assured little girl you’d ever known - and you were sure her Wallace genes played a strong part in making that happen.

~

Sean groans in frustration, leaning against the kitchen counter as he does so. Elliot had just called to say that the latest lead Sean had him following went nowhere and now Sean was wracking his brain to figure out who else could have been behind the intrusion of your home.

The intruder in question had been of no help, naturally. Sean had done what he could to pry information out of him but the man said nothing - and Sean wasn’t sure if it was out of loyalty or because he’d lost so much blood he couldn’t think straight. In the end, Sean didn’t even have to finish him off because the gunshot you’d inflicted did the job well enough. He decided he wouldn’t tell you that, though. You were shaken enough as it was.

“Are you okay?”

Sean’s jolted out of his thoughts by the little voice and when he looks up, Violet’s hoisting herself up onto one of the stools on the other side of the counter. She then looks at him expectantly, waiting for his answer to her question.

“I am,” Sean replies, still watching her curiously.

Besides the brief introduction where you’d told Violet he was your _friend_ , he hadn’t yet properly interacted with her. For one, he had been too preoccupied with trying to track certain people down but the other reason was that he didn’t know how you would react to it if he did. You’d clearly been avoiding bringing up the topic of Violet’s parentage and he’d let you avoid it - for now. 

“Will you colour in with me?” She asks, taking him out of his reverie yet again. “My mum’s busy.”

Sean blinks at her, processing the request. He wonders if he should say no - after all, he has so much to do - but she looks so hopeful that he doesn’t want to. When he eventually caves and says yes, he’s taken aback by the fondness he feels at the way she beams and hops off the stool, coming over to him to take his hand and lead him to the living room where she’d already had her colouring book all set up.

~

You’re more than surprised when you come downstairs half an hour later and see the two of them sitting at the coffee table, colouring in together.

“What colour do you think should go here?” Sean asks her, pointing to a blank spot on the page.

“Green! No, wait!” Violet’s expression scrunches up as she surveys all the colours in front of them. “Yeah, green.”

You watch as Sean chuckles, complying with her wishes as he reaches for the green crayon. He starts colouring in the area while Violet happily observes, the section she was working on long forgotten as she peers intently at the way Sean was doing it.

You feel a slight pang in your heart as you watch them, knowing you had kept them from having moments like this. It’s a fleeting feeling, however, because Violet looks up and spots you.

“Mummy!”

“Hi, love,” You greet her, walking over to press a kiss to the crown of her head. “I see you’ve wrangled Sean into colouring with you.”

“We’re colouring in this page right now,” Violet says excitedly, showing it to you. “But we also did the one with the horses. You know, the one me and you didn’t get to finish?”

She flips through the book and shows you the page in question.

“That’s great, darling,” You tell her, fondly smoothing her hair down. “Now, why don’t you go outside and play for a bit, hm? Let Sean get back to his work.”

She nods, taking the crayon from him and putting them all back in the box.

“Thanks for colouring with me, Sean,” She smiles before turning and scampering off excitedly to the backyard.

“Don’t forget your hat!” You call out to her but she’d already disappeared around the corner, leaving a silence to settle between you and Sean in the living room.

“She’s a chatty one,” He comments, breaking the silence as he gets up off the floor. “Would fit right in with my dad’s side of the family.”

You just hum in acknowledgement, avoiding his knowing gaze. You’d always thought the same thing but you didn’t want to tell him that, not yet wanting to confirm or deny anything to do with Violet being a Wallace even though there really was no point in doing so - you knew Sean knew, even if you hadn’t yet spoken about it.

“Y/n,” He says, waiting until you actually looked at him. “Did you know you were pregnant when you broke up with me?”

There it was.

You’d spent the last few days waiting for him to bring it up - surprised he even let it stay unaddressed for this long - and yet you find yourself still completely unprepared to have this conversation.

You shake your head. “I only found out about a month after.”

Not that it matters. What matters was that you could have told him at any point during your pregnancy or at any point after Violet was born, but you never did. You scan Sean’s face desperately, hating that you can’t read him as well as you used to be able to. 

“I’m sorry, Sean,” You say and you think you’ve never meant an apology more in your life. “I thought it would be safer to keep her away. Even after I found out I… I didn’t think coming back to you _pregnant_ was a good idea.”

“Still, I deserved to know about her, y/n. _She_ deserves to know about _me_.”

You drop your gaze, ashamed. “I know. God, I _know_ , okay? But I was scared.”

You know that doesn’t excuse anything but you had to be honest. He had to at least know why you did what you did at the time.

“Scared of what? Me?”

“Of the people you were working with!” You clarify. “I was scared that if they knew about her they might-”

“They would never even get close,” He cuts you off, his tone developing a menacing edge to it at the mere thought of anyone laying a hand on Violet. “I wouldn’t have fucking let them.”

There's a heavy silence in the air and you watch him sigh in frustration, trying to work through his temper. Your own heart hammers against your chest at finally being forced to face the consequences of your decisions.

“I would’ve kept you both safe,” He eventually says, his voice slightly calmer. “If you had just let me, I would’ve done it.”

“I know,” You admit quietly, remorsefully. “I know you would have. But at the time... Sean, your way of keeping us safe wasn’t my way of keeping us safe. You know that."

He purses his lips, remembering all the times in the past you two would argue because he would always get himself into more violent situations than you thought was necessary. The way you saw it, he was unnecessarily digging his own grave with every altercation he found himself in whereas he’d grown up being taught that violence was a necessary measure to keep certain people at bay, to remind them who was in charge, and to prevent them from threatening the people he cared about - namely you, at the time.

“I could never get my head around why you would go through all that trouble, Sean. But I get it now.”

His eyes bore into yours, his brow furrowing slightly as he takes in what you just said.

“What changed?”

You open your mouth to reply when you jump at the sound of banging at the window. Both of you look to see Violet on the other side of it holding up a football, clearly wanting you to play outside with her. You give her a nod, holding up a finger to let her know you’ll be out in a minute.

“I had her,” You answer as you both watch Violet grin and run down to the other side of the backyard. “I’d literally do anything to keep her safe, anything just to make sure she’s okay.”

Sean looks out the window for a long time, to the point where you think he’s still stewing in his anger, but then he lets out a little amused-sounding huff.

“What?” You ask, slightly confused.

“Now you know why I used to get into all those fights for you.”

Your expression softens at that but he doesn't see it. He's deliberately not looking at you, immediately feeling like he’s made himself a bit too vulnerable after saying that. He glances at Violet, kicking the ball around all on her lonesome, and it reminds him of the reason you’d returned to his life in the first place. 

“I have to make some calls,” He says, shifting back into business mode. “I have to find another lead.”

“I really am sorry, Sean,” You tell him, ignoring his change of topic. You needed to make sure he knew that.

He looks at you and sighs. “I know. And I get why you did it. As much as I fucking hate it, y/n… I do understand.”

It’s more than you could have ever asked from him. You nod and one last look of acknowledgement passes between you two before he disappears to his office and you head out to be with Violet, feeling lighter than you have felt in a while now that everything was finally out in the open.


	4. Chapter Three

“Mum, where’s Sean?”

“I told you, he’s working.”

“But _where?_ ”

“I don’t know, Vi.”

Your daughter makes an unsatisfied noise. “When will he come back?”

“I don’t know the answer to that either, love.”

And you really didn’t. Before he left, Sean had told you that they’d finally got a hold of the people responsible and that he was going to go and deal with them personally. You didn’t press him for any more details than what he’d offered. Just because you had reevaluated your stance on his lifestyle did not mean you were ready to know the ins and outs of it. It already unnerved you enough that these were actual people who more than likely wanted you or Violet harmed and knowing anything more than that would do a greater number on your psyche, that much you knew. The only thing you wanted to know was that they would never get a chance to come for you or Violet ever again. How that would be guaranteed you left up to Sean to figure out - and judging by the look on his face before he left, you were sure he already had.

“Do you think that he’ll like this?” Violet asks you, holding up the little picture she’d been working on.

You give her an assuring smile, “He’ll love it.”

Since their little colouring-in session, your daughter had decided that Sean was her favourite member of the Wallace household and had made it a mission to try and spend every possible moment with him - even when he was busy. There was one afternoon where you couldn’t find her anywhere, only for Marian to tell you she was in Sean’s office. You’d sworn under your breath when she’d told you that, knowing how relentless Violet could be if she wanted someone’s attention, and having to deal with an irritated Sean was the last thing you wanted on your plate. However, when you appeared at the open doorway, you found Violet contentedly sitting on the sofa reading one of her picture books while Sean was at his desk tapping away at his laptop. Neither of them paid any mind to you, so you’d backed away slowly and left them to it, your heart warm.

Things had been less tense between you and Sean ever since your conversation about Violet. The resentment and cold shoulder you had anticipated from him afterwards never came and, much to your surprise, you instead got a Sean that was amicable and - dare you say - almost caring. He’d become more open to updating you on the progress he was making with tracking down the culprits and in turn, you were more than willing to answer all his questions about Violet. He would often ask you things nonchalantly and in passing and you knew it was his way of trying to catch up on what he’d missed without coming across as being overly invested. You understood his approach, considering there was still so much you hadn’t spoken about regarding this new dynamic between you, him, and Violet, but you quietly adored the fact that he cared to know more about her and glad that he hadn’t shut you out the way you thought he might.

~

A couple of days later, when you peer out of the guest bedroom window, you’re just in time to see a glimpse of Sean walking up the path to the front door. Marian had told you he would be back today but she didn’t say whether or not he had been successful in dealing with the culprits.

“Shall we go down and get breakfast?” You ask your daughter, turning from the window to face her.

She nods sleepily and you chuckle, picking her up in your arms before heading downstairs.

“Hey, Vi,” You murmur to the child languidly resting her head on your collarbone. “Guess what?”

She perks up a bit, looking at you curiously. “What?”

You reach the bottom landing of the stairs and nod your head towards the front door. And then you almost regret doing it.

“Sean!” Violet squeals the moment she turns and spots him.

“ _Ow_ , Violet,” You complain as she squirms in your arms in an attempt to reach him, roughly elbowing you in the process. “Ease up.”

“I can take her,” Sean chuckles, seeing as Violet was nearly half out of your hold anyway.

You nod and hand her over, your heart fluttering slightly as he takes her in his arms, feeling like this was a glimpse into what life would've been like for the three of you if you had never left Sean.

“Hello, Violet,” He says to her, a finger lightly tickling her side and making her giggle.

"Hi, Sean,” She replies, looking up at him as she rests her head on his shoulder (and you think _jesus christ_ your heart could burst at the sight). “Where have you been?"

“I had to take a trip,” He explains, craning his neck a little to meet her gaze.

“Why?”

“I needed to talk to some people.”

“About what?”

“Vi,” You cut in, saving Sean from having to come up with a kid-friendly explanation of what he’d been up to. “Let’s have breakfast, yeah? Sean just got home.”

Violet pouts at you for interrupting before turning her attention back to the man in question. “Will you have breakfast with us, Sean?”

You look on in amusement, knowing not even he would be able to resist her pleading eyes.

“Of course,” He tells her with a smile. “I’m starving.”

~

“How did it go?” You ask Sean after Violet had run upstairs to get the drawing she had made for him.

You seemed to be doing this a lot, you realise, fitting in as much serious conversation as the two of you could in the rare times Violet wasn’t around. Maybe it was an instinctual parent thing. Or maybe Sean’s lifestyle just called for it. You didn’t really know.

“Good,” He replies, stirring a cup of tea. “Everything’s been taken care of.”

You raise an eyebrow, “Taken care of?”

He hums, “They won’t bother you again.”

You stare at him blankly as you process what he’d just said. Even though you knew the amount of effort Sean had put into essentially hunting them down, you didn’t realise it would all be done and dusted quite this quickly. A part of you had mentally prepared yourself to have to live with this looming threat for a while - imagined that you’d probably have to get Sean to beef up the security when you finally found a new place to live, thinking it was going to be that much of a long-term problem. But here he was telling you it was all over.

“How… how did you manage to find them so fast?”

“It wasn’t hard once we got people to talk,” He explains, sliding the freshly made tea over to you.

You mumble your thanks as you take it in your hands, the heat of the ceramic bringing you back to reality somewhat.

“And you’re sure they won’t… retaliate?”

“Positive.”

You eye him curiously, watching as he goes to make his own cup of tea, and you clock, for the first time, the small gash above his brow.

“What did you do?”

The question leaves your mouth before you could even think about whether or not you actually wanted to know the answer to it and the corner of Sean’s lip lifts slightly in response.

"I know you’ve changed your mind about a lot of the things I do but it’s probably still best if I don’t tell you _that_ part of it.”

“You don't think I can’t handle it?"

There’s no attitude behind the way you asked the question, just honest curiosity.

Sean shakes his head, “There's just no benefit to knowing.”

“Right,” You nod, agreeing, but then you can’t help yourself and you look up at him sheepishly. “But I’m curious, though.”

“Well, you’re going to have to stay curious,” He tells you, his lip lifting again in amusement.

You make a face at his evasive snark and he chuckles, continuing to go about making breakfast and ignoring the way your eyes are following him.

“What happened there?” You ask, gesturing to his brow. 

Sean lets out an amused exhale and leans back against the sink, “Vi definitely gets her inquisitiveness from you.”

“And she definitely got her stubbornness from you,” You fire back, picking up on the way he had dodged your question again.

He smiles at that and so do you, delighting a little in your childish back and forth. You couldn’t help but offhandedly think that, without Violet in the room, it almost felt like old times. In the same vein of thought, you realise that there are about a million things that need to be addressed between you and Sean, the most pressing of which was what your lives were going to look like going _forward_ , especially now that this problem had been dealt with. Things weren’t going to go back to how they were before, that much was for sure. Neither of you get to say anything more, though, because Violet’s back with the drawing, eyes alight and eager to show it to him.


End file.
